Rain spikes local clam prices

Tuesday

Aug 5, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Genevieve OlsonThe Patriot Ledger

QUINCY - Rich scallops and lobster, fried big belly soft shell clams and dip-them-in-butter steamers remain seafood favorites on the South Shore this summer, despite higher than usual prices this summer due to bad weather, according to local fish markets and restaurants.

“I’ve always noticed a jump in prices after every fourth of July, but they’ve never been this high for us. It was the rain and storms,” said Jack Daily, owner of The Lobster Pound in Hingham.

At Burke’s Seafood in Quincy, raw clams currently cost $7.99 a pound, raw scallops cost $19.99 a pound and hard shell lobsters up to one and a quarter pounds sell for $7.99 a pound. Burke’s prices are typical of local privately-owned fish retailers.

At the beginning of seafood season, which is mid-March, the price for a fried clam plate was $18.95. Now, it’s $19.95 at Tony’s Clam Shop on Quincy’s Wollaston Beach.

“The seafood vendor prices have gone sky high for a few reasons: supply and demand and weather. The thunderstorms can shut down the clam beds, which usually raise the prices. We then have to raise our market prices,” said Shaun Bulman, General Manager of Tony’s.

Many local seafood retailers, like Tony’s, Burke’s and The Lobster Pound, obtain their seafood from vendors in the Essex and Ipswich area, a region of Massachusetts filled with estuaries and bays which are a, haven for crustaceans.

The July Fourth storm, otherwise known as “Arthur,” shut down all of the shellfish beds north of Boston, said Jay Kimball, owner of Wood’s Seafood restaurant in Plymouth. Kimball also orders his clams from a vendor in Ipswich.

“That storm caused a 20 percent increase in the price of steamers, and that hasn’t let up,” said Kimball.